Day 1, 20 May 2005, Ancient Rome
KL 898 was the only KLM flight that connected Singapore to Europe, and being based in the Netherlands, we'd to a transit via Amsterdam on each leg of our journey, in and out of Europe. A direct flight to our destination would be much preferred, but being on a tight budget, SQ flights are out of the question.
Our flight took off punctually from Changi Internation Airport in the wee hours on 19 May 2005, a 12 hour flight to Amsterdam on a Boeing 747-combi. We had tried to catch some sleep onboard, but that proved difficult as economy class seats were not exactly made for long sleeps but intermittent naps, disrupted by restless passengers and ocassional air turbulances.
The whole western europe was on DST (daylight saving time) and was 6 hours behind Singapore time. So we 'saved' 6 hours and touched down in a very foggy weather at Schipol Airport at about 5am local time. All I could recall of the landing was our plane going through very thick clouds while descending and when we came out from the 'clouds', we were just 3 meters from the ground!
The connecting flight to Rome, KL1587 was scheduled to take off at 7.05am. Schipol Airport was really big and it took us quite a while to get ourselves to the correct terminal where our connecting regional flight was. Although it was only 6am in the morning, there was already a large crowd queueing up at the immigration to the regional flights' boarding gates (Gate D). We counted ourselves lucky for being able to board the plane on time, but pitied the late passengers missed the flight and had their luggages offloaded.
Another 1.5 hour flight, and this time, on a much smaller B737 plane. Breakfast was served. I've had so many cabin meals the past 10 hours that I don't even feel like opening up the wrapper to see what's inside the tray. The captain had informed us that what was below us was actually the Alps. Indeed they were very pretty, but at a certain angle, they looked like white stationary waves to me.
Beside me on the flight sat a Roman on his way home from a holiday in Singapore. He told me that the Alps is like the Great Wall of Italy just as to China. Nature must have really favoured the Italians more to actually 'build' their wall for them then.
Fiumicino Aeroporto was connected to Roma Termini via train. After some 30 minutes and 9.50 Euros each, we carried our backpacks, got off the train and started heading for the train terminal exit, looking for the place we would call home for the coming 2 nights.
Rome was not built in one day. And Indeed it wasn't. The place looked really historic, and I'm sure throughout the years, a lot of dust had settled upon the ancient city. My first impression of the place is the dust, narrow streets and polluted air. Not a very impressive place to begin with, especially after a long flight and still suffering slight jet lag.
Reiz had said that her friend who'd been to Rome had advised against staying at backpackers' hostels near the termini. It was only when we got here that we began to realise for ourselves why thats
so. Our accomodation in Rome was a backpackers' Hostel going by the name Fiesta Terrance Hostel, which was somewhat converted from an apartment flat. A bed would cost us around 20 Euros per night. Pretty costly for just a bed, shared room and toilet. But its the cheapest one can get in Europe at this time of the year.
We've got ourselves a street map of Rome and began navigating our way around the ancient city. Our first stop - the Colesseum. Roman streets, unlike that of those in Asia cities, are narrow and small. And unlike the Brits, they drive on the other side of the road. We've gotta get used to looking at the opposite side when whenever we wanted to cross the street. There're hardly any tall buildings in the city. A typical HDB flat in Singapore could easily become the tallest building in the city. 
The Colosseum stood at Piazza del Colosseo, in ancient Rome and in the heart of the busy Italian traffic, where cars seem to just zoom nonchalntly across the thousand year old monument. Like ourselves, there were hundreds of other tourists who'd come to visit the majestic structure, or what is left of it. According to the information pamphlet, in the 14 century, "the Colosseum was completely abandoned, then gradually transformed into a fortress and eventually used as an almost inexhaustible quarry of building materials." It seems that the Colosseum was not just for the Gladiators but for Roman architects too.
Speaking of Gladiators, there were really Gladiators 'patrolling' around the Colosseum grounds. They donned the Roman soldiers armour and were armed with the broadest smile to convince tourists to part with their Euros for some snapshots of them. They'd even drink (mineral water) for you!
There was this cultural week event that only happens once a year in Italy. And during this period, most of the national exhibits, museums and monuments are free. Not that we could take them home, but we need not pay any charges for visiting them. Coincidentally the cultural week in 2005 fell between 14 May 2005 to 21 May 2005. So what would normally cost us 8 Euros to see the interior of the Colosseum is now free! No wonder the crowd. So for would
-be Italian tourists, this cultural week would be a good week to be in Italy.
This was quite a good deal. We got to visit the surrounding Palatino (Palatine Hill) for free too. At the very end of Palatine hill was Circus Maximus, supposingly where the movie Ben Hur was filmed. But all we could see from there was a patch of open grass and.. erm.. cars parked on the other side. Either we looked at the wrong place or that place was so abandoned that it lay buried under the layers of dust a few centuries old.
Photos of ancient rome. (clockwise: Arch of Constatine, Interior of Colosseum, Colosseum from Palatine hill, ancient Rome, Palatine Hill)
The good thing about visiting ancient Rome is that the attractions are all next to each other. So, after we're done with the Palatine Hill, we moved on to the Roman Forum which is just next door.
What stands at the Roman Forum now is basically ruins and according to Reiz, some 'very famous stones'. Its hard to believe that this place was once the centre of Rome and very much the centre of the ancient Roman empire. Photos below show the remains of ancient rome and that of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus (left), and that of the temple of Romulus and Constantine (right).
All the way to the other end of the Roman Forum past the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (below, left) stood Palazzo Venezia where the Vittorio Emanuele monument stood (below, right). Was a very grand building, nicely decorated. But I've got no idea what was in it, but it looked really grand and big.
The next place on the itinerary was the famous Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi). According to my friend who's been there, one can make 3 wishes by throwing 3 coins (Euros preferred), a coin for each wish and the last one being to wish to return to Rome. I personally think the last wish is not attainable by throwing a 1 Euro coin into the bottom of Trevi. Would probably need at least 500 of those to be able to make another trip back to Rome (from Singapore)... heh... Or maybe collecting all the coins in the fountain would help. In fact, I read from somewhere that there's some guy who actually does that - going into the fountain to retrieve the coins and his earnings? An average 2000 Euros a month from the generous coin-wishing tourists.
We had our first galeto in Italy there, and the ice-cream tasted really good. Partly due to the hot weather and the anticipation of having really authentic Italian ice-cream. But more so because we had traded our would-be wishing coins for them. ;)
The best thing about summer in Europe is probably this - the day is very long. The sun just doesn't really seem to set there. We've had a long 12 hour flight to begin with, arriving Rome at 9am in the morning, and after walking through a great deal of ancient Rome, we've still got some 4 hours before sunset. The day felt like forever. I'm sure this is an ideal place for a 'sunshine' person to visit.
We took the rest of the day to explore the Pentheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de Fiori and a small part of Tevere river. Pretty much like on the trail of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Being at Piazza Navona, I really begin to doubt that the underwater battle between Robert Langdom and the Hassassin in the Bernini's fountain could ever happen. The fountain just seems too small and shallow for such a dramatic scene to actually happen in real life.
The day concluded with a truely authentic Italian meal at Piazza Navona. Restaurants and bars lined the surroundings of the plaza, making us spoilt for a choice of what to have for dinner. But in the end, we let our wallets make the decision and dinner amounted to some 10 Euros per person. Cheap? maybe not.. but for what its worth, one can't really complain.
It has become an 'in' thing to do for many students nowadays - travelling for a period of time (long or short) after graduation. It also has been known to many as 'Grad-trip'. Many of us undergrads (or now fresh grads) have been planning such trips as either a motivation to see us through the tough final year in university or just a last chance to go enjoy holidays before we step into the working society.